Minesto Makes Management Changes

Minesto has hired David Collier, with 30 years of experience in offshore energy, as new COO. At the same time, Bernt Erik Westre has been appointed as new CTO to replace leaving Heije Westberg.

“With these changes, we strengthen our commercial position and put a sharper focus on customer-driven product development in Minesto,” said Bengt Adolfsson, chairman of Minesto.

David Collier has spent the last decade engaged in technical and commercial development of wave and tidal power devices. David comes from a position as project manager at MeyGen, where he has led the development of the commercial scale multi-turbine tidal energy array.

“We are delighted to have David on board as new COO of Minesto. There are only a handful of people in the world with experience in commercial deployment of tidal turbines, and David is one of them. His industrial know-how, offshore experience and leadership skills will be of the outmost value to us in commercializing the Deep Green technology,” said Dr Martin Edlund, CEO of Minesto.

“I’m excited to join Minesto and to get the chance to work with a novel product such as Deep Green. I have always pursued opportunities where I get to use my engineering skills to innovate; taking good ideas, wrapping them in a commercial environment and deliver them safely and technically competent. That’s where I feel I can contribute at Minesto, as I have been through the entire process of putting commercial-scale tidal turbines in the ocean,” said David Collier.

In addition to the recruitment of David Collier, Minesto has appointed Bernt Erik Westre as new chief technology officer (CTO) to replace Heije Westberg, who has decided to leave the company.

Bernt Erik currently holds the position as design manager at Minesto. He has extensive experience in technology development and project management in offshore energy, having spent almost 15 years at GVA Consultants in engineer, manager and senior advisor positions before joining Minesto in 2016.

Bernt Erik holds an MSc in Marine Technology from the Norwegian University of Science and Technology.

“Since day one at Minesto, Bernt Erik has shown great dedication and determination and he has continuously delivered according to set targets. Matched with his organisational skills and leadership qualities, I am confident that he will do a terrific job as CTO of Minesto,” said Martin Edlund.

Bengt Adolfsson, chairman of the board of Minesto said: “With these changes to the management team, we strengthen our commercial position and put a sharper focus on customer-driven product development in Minesto. The added experiences and skills will boost the management team in the work to take our unique product to the market.”